


one stroke at a time

by orphan_account



Series: the marks we make [1]
Category: X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, Marks AU, Soulmate AU, babie!seungyul, if you wanted something cute this is the right stop, uwu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 22:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21126014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: in which anything you write on your body will also appear on your soulmate's.





	one stroke at a time

Hangyul had never really bothered with the whole “soulmate” concept. After all, what would a 7 year old even have to do with romance of any sort?

Of course, the other kids at school were going on and on about their soulmates. Every day they’d show up to class with a sweet message on their arm from someone out there who they’d later love and marry and have a happily ever after with.

Personally, Hangyul thought he was better off not writing on his arm until late hours. Besides, it seemed like a pain to wait for the opposite end’s marks to fade, and washing off the ink from your pen was a whole other story. Also, wouldn’t it be bothersome to your soulmate to have some stranger ranting on your arm for the whole world to see? And so Hangyul mostly didn’t care about it. Only occasionally would he notice a few tiny notes on his palm, but he never bothered to read it.

The first time Hangyul ever contacted his other half, he was desperate. Despite being 7, it seemed like his life was going down. Kids at school were bullying him saying that his original parents were right for abandoning him. He’d seen so many hopeful parents but none of them ever returned. His friends at school wouldn’t understand, and the heads of the orphanage couldn’t do much. He needed to talk to someone, anyone, just to get things off his chest and distract himself. So one day at night, he used a pen he found lying around and said his first word to his soulmate.

“Hello?”

Immediately after writing it he regretted it. First of all, it was in Korean. Who knew if the person on the other side knew the language? Some kids at school needed their parents to help translate into English so that they could communicate. Second of all, maybe the person was living in another country where it was night-time? Then they’d never respond.

Yet it was only a few moments until a response appeared, thankfully in Korean.

“Hi!”

The other person seemed cheerful enough. Hangyul smiled a bit at this.

“My name’s Hangyul. What’s yours?”

“My name is Seungyoun. Sorry if my Korean is bad, I’m a bit out of practice haha.”

“Are you a foreigner?”

“I live in Brazil haha. I came here a few years ago to play soccer. But I’m from Korea.”

“That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, I’m 10 now. It’s pretty fun here.”

Oh no, Seungyoun was older than him. And by 3 years at that. And plus, he lived in Brazil! He seemed so cool.

“By the way, Hangyul, why did you talk to me now?”

Oh no, he caught on fast. Hangyul was expecting it to be a little more drawn out. He thought that he’d at least have a full conversation before admitting his original intent. But then again, it wasn’t worth wasting Seungyoun’s time. Hangyul decided to tell them what had been going on.

“It’s not much, it’s just that I wanted to talk about life I guess.”

“You can tell me, I’m always going to have time for you.”

Was it because of the soulmate thing that Seungyoun was being so nice? Somehow, talking to Seungyoun felt better than his friends at school. Whatever the case was, he kept writing.

“Well see, I don’t have parents. They left me when I was a kid.”

“That’s terrible, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, and that’s not it. All these kids at school say that my parents were right to leave me alone. And none of the visitors want to adopt me. Nobody understands and I wanted to talk to someone. So I’m talking to you.”

“I’m sorry, Hangyul.”

Hangyul knew that Seungyoun was trying his best, but he’d heard the apology so many times that it hardly meant anything to him. But what the person wrote next surprised him.

“I think I kind of get the feeling of wanting to go somewhere you can really call home. Every day I go home, but it’s not really the same, right? Because I’m from Korea. And I miss it so much. And even though I said I came here for soccer, I don’t think it’s working out for me. But I think in time everything’s going to work out, right? I think that whoever’s up there in the sky is making sure that we get the best outcome possible. Maybe that’s why I ended up here, maybe being in Brazil will help me somehow in the future. And maybe that’s why you’re getting a second chance at a family, and this time it’ll be much better. Give it a little time, keep smiling, and everything’s going to work out.”

It was a lot to read, but Hangyul needed it. Somehow, the writing on his arm worked like a spell and made him happy. Hangyul sat there for a few moments, but then one of the orphanage staff knocked on his door and told him to sleep. Hangyul quickly wrote down a quick few sentences.

“Thanks so much, that really helps. I have to go now, so I’ll write to you later! And also, there are two Seungyouns in my neighborhood but one’s a guy and one’s a girl. Which one are you? I’m a boy by the way.”

“Oh, I’m a boy too! That’s cool! I’ll see you later!”

And at the moment, Hangyul wasn’t worried much about the gender even though he asked. He couldn’t wait for tomorrow to talk to Seungyoun. Something made him feel like this could turn out pretty well.

~

Seungyoun never got a sign from his other half for 10 years. In all those 10 years he had seen other people smile at their arms with sweet messages and intricate drawings while his arm was left blank. The other kids at school often told him that there must be something wrong with his link, maybe his soulmate died, or maybe they just didn’t care. Either way, Seungyoun woke up glancing at his arm to see if anything new had appeared. And every day, there was nothing.

That’s why one fine Sunday morning in the school holidays, when he noticed a word appear on his arm while watching TV, he dropped everything and ran to his room with a pen. Finally, after so long of waiting, he’d figure out who he’d be spending the rest of his life with.

The first thing Seungyoun realized when he read the first word was that he was very, very out of practice with Korean. After speaking mainly Portuguese and English for the majority of his elementary school, the Korean was buried somewhere in his head and he couldn’t find it. He could tell that the person on the other side was a child, judging from the handwriting, so it wasn’t likely that they’d know fluent enough English. He knew that the first word was “Hello,” but repeating the word he didn’t know what to write. Or rather, he didn’t know how to write it down. Which meant he had to go all the way back downstairs to get his mom’s help. He made a mental note to himself to get better at Korean.

After a few sentences, he could feel a bit of the Korean come back to him and he went back upstairs. He had a million questions he had prepared to ask his soulmate, but everything vanished the second he saw a certain sentence.

“Well see, I don’t have parents. They left me when I was a kid.”

Seungyoun may be a kid, but he knows when someone needs help. The kid - no, Hangyul - needed to talk to someone and the only person available was a stranger on the other side of the world. Any questions could wait, right now Hangyul mattered more.

He did whatever he could with his limited Korean, but in the end the final message Seungyoun wanted to say was that he’d always be there for Hangyul. Always.

That was a few months ago, and while Hangyul’s words had vanished after a few hours, Seungyoun remembered it clearly. And since then, he’d made a habit of checking his arm frequently for another blurb of characters from him. Every day, there would be nothing. But it was different this time. Now Seungyoun knew there was someone at the other end, and all he had to do was wait.

But one day on the bus ride to school, he noticed something on his arm. Immediately he got out a pen from his backpack, bumping his friend in the arm in the process. He read the message over, and nearly dropped the pen in excitement.

“I got adopted!”

The message was written quickly with the characters all connected. Hangyul must have been so excited he couldn’t even wait.

“That’s amazing!” Seungyoun wrote back quickly. He didn’t want Hangyul to wait too long.

“I know right? I have a real family now with a mom and a dad and two brothers and they’re all so nice!”

Seungyoun grinned ear to ear at this. If he was there for it, he would’ve hugged Hangyul so hard. He couldn’t imagine life without his parents, he didn’t know how much pain it would’ve been to not have any for years on end. But his pain had ended, and it made Seungyoun so happy for some reason.

“I guess I’ll have to call you with your last name now!”

“Of course! My name’s Lee Hangyul now. That’s my family’s name!”

And with careful strokes, Seungyoun wrote back.

“I’m Cho Seungyoun. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> nobody:  
babie seungyoun: haha!
> 
> sorry if this was a bit short, i dont have a lot of experience of fanfics oof also i dont know how to write love or children so if it was bad blease tell me
> 
> this is also on my tumblr because i wanted it to get out there, please give it some love! https://tinyurl.com/yxfcfk6y
> 
> please also give comments about how it was, i favor it more than the kudos because it lets me know you're really here! but if you're extra you can give kudos ya know


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